The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1000643
162 ■ THE WOLFPACKER ■ PACK PROS NC State Widening Gap Between Them And Everybody Else As QB U BY RYAN TICE S ince Russell Wilson entered the NFL in 2012, NC State has become Quar- terback U. While other programs have had multiple signal-callers in the league during that stretch, no group can match the high-level annual performances of the Wolfpack's top two in Wilson and veteran Philip Rivers. The pair have been among the league's best since Wilson's rookie season by just about any metric possible, but 2017 may have been their top combined work. Both were named to the Pro Bowl — which had happened just once previously, in 2013, when they became the first quarterback duo from the same school selected to the NFL's annual all-star game since 2000. Their numbers alone would have eclipsed any other combination of starters from the same college this past season — but that wasn't all that NC State had under center. The campaign opened with three former Wolfpack quarterbacks starting — Chi- cago's Mike Glennon was the other — and then the number grew to four in week two, when Jacoby Brissett won the Colts' job despite being acquired only a week before the season started. Four starting quarterbacks from the same school in the same week tied an NFL re- cord, shared by Michigan State in 2014 and USC in 2009, although Glennon was even- tually pulled. Miami in 1993 and Michigan in 2004 are the only other programs to have at least a quartet of starters in the same NFL campaign (Miami even had five start games, but three opened seven games or fewer). While none of the NCSU signal-callers led their teams to the playoffs — Wilson and Rivers both made late-season pushes, but finished one game shy — none of those schools in those seasons put up better com- bined numbers than the Pack quartet last fall (see the chart below). Although 10 programs had at least two former quarterbacks start 2017 NFL games, only five had multiple signal-call- ers start multiple games — and no school could come close to matching NC State's combined numbers, either (see the chart on page 164). Additionally, Rivers and Wil- son are one of only three quarterback duos from the same school to ever be listed in Last year, Philip Rivers threw for 4,515 yards (second in the NFL) while posting his best touch- down-to-interception ratio (28-10) and passer rating (96.0) since 2013. PHOTO BY MIKE NOWAK/COURTESY LOS ANGELES CHARGERS Schools That Had Four Or More Quarterbacks Start In The Same NFL Season Category NC State ('17) MSU ('14) USC ('09) Miami ('93) Michigan ('04) QBs who started 4 4 4 5 4 Starts (W-L-T) 51 (23-28) 34 (19-15) 47 (22-25) 45 (24-21) 28 (19-9) Passing yards-TD-Int. 12,429-79-33 8,910-42-37 8,897-49-52 9,721-60-54 6,612-50-31 Rushing yards-TD 848-7 190-0 382-6 294-0 56-0 Pro Bowl QBs 2 0 0 0 0 Notes: The stats are for regular-season games; QBs count toward any college at which they took an official snap